Ecclesiastes 11

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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Send your bread on the waters

¹Send your bread out on the surface of the waters, \q for after many days you will find it again. ²Give a share to seven, and even to eight, \q for you do not know what disaster may come on the earth. ³When the clouds are full of rain, they pour it out on the earth; \q and whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, \q wherever the tree falls, there it will lie. ⁴Whoever keeps watching the wind will never sow, \q and whoever keeps looking at the clouds will never reap. ⁵Just as you do not know the path of the breath of life \q into the bones in a pregnant woman’s womb, \q so you do not know the work of God, \q who makes all things. ⁶Sow your seed in the morning, \q and in the evening do not let your hands be idle, \q for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, \q or whether both alike will turn out well. ⁷Light is sweet, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun. ⁸However many years a person may live, let them enjoy them all, but let them remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is a breath. ⁹Be glad, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and what your eyes see, but know that God will call you to account for all these things. ¹⁰So banish anxiety from your heart and put away pain from your body, for youth and the prime of life are a breath.